for chamber ensemble(10) (2006) 27′
I. Zephyr
II. Dusketha
III. Breama
IV. Salamander
- Premiered => GSU, Graduate Composition Recital, Daniel Swilley- Conducting; 2.24.2007. Recorded => In with the New Volumn No. 2 (Mvt. I. Zephyr)(Daniel Swilley - Conducting).
Program Notes:
Pantheod (2006), for chamber ensemble(10) - draws inspiration primarily from John Keats’s poem Song of Four Faeries. The titular faeries, named Salamander, Zephyr, Dusketha, and Breama, are each associated with an element in Keat’s poem and throughout mythology: Salamander to Fire, Zephry to Air, Dusketha to Earth, and Breama to Water.Pantheod’s four movements are a portrayal of these faeries/elements. Because of the differing characteristics of each faery and element each movement is approached differently in terms of pitch, rhythm, texture, and time. The first movement Zephyr (wind) utilizes overlapping augmented triads for pitch material, non-retrogradable rhythms, and is mostly aleatoric. All of these choices were made to emphasize vastness, fluidity, and a sense of unendingness. The subsequent movements follow this notion of characterizing the faeries and elements. Pantheod’s title is derived from a manipulation of the word pantheon, which is a monument or temple dedicated to all gods of a religion, or in this case Keats’s faeries and their associate elements. The instrumentation for Pantheod is an expansion of the instrumentation of Stravinsky’s L'histoire du Soldat (The Soldier's Tale), with additions (flute, horn, and viola) to balance each family of instruments. Pantheod was composed with the aid of the computer programs MusicGen and AthenaCL.